School testing to get tougher for students

Current standards too low, experts say

By Jeremy P. Kelley

Staff Writer

Formore than a decade, Ohiostudents were deemed “proficient” on state math and reading tests even if theygot more questions wrong than right.

Thoseresults led some parents to believe their children were doing better againstpeers in other states than they actually were.

“Wehave very low expectations in the state of Ohio. It’s pathetically low, ” saidMiddletown City School District assessment coordinator Deborah Houser.“Basically, it’s time to up the expectations.”

Stateofficials admit the low bar served a simple purpose: schools looked better tothe public and stayed out of “academic emergency.” And that likely easedpressure to raise performance.

Thissummer, Ohioand 10 other states will revisit the issue, working together to establishpassing scores for the new, tougher tests that were given to students thisspring.

“Wehave to raise the scores,” said state school board president Tom Gunlock. “Wehave to tell people exactly where we are, instead of continually lying topeople.”

Theeducation reform group Achieve, a Common Core educational standards advocate,this month ranked the cutoff scores on Ohio’s2013-14 tests among the bottom 10 in the nation. That report put the state inthe same grouping with Louisiana,Georgia Arkansas and others. This newspaper’s investigation found:

·                      Ohio used to score wellabove the national average on the National Assessment of Educational Progress(NAEP) reading tests, but its scores have stagnated and even declined in thepast six years while other states narrowed the gap.

·                      While the state said 90 percent of Ohio seniors met OhioGraduation Test requirements in 2013, only 63 percent of those students whowent on to an Ohio college were able to begin college without remedial help.

Some,like Gunlock, say students and educators will rise to the occasion if held tohigher standards.

Otherssay setting the bar higher could causes thousands of Ohio students to fail the tests, making ahigh school diploma more difficult to obtain.

“Areyou willing to say to the people of this state that 70 percent of our childrenfail (these tests)?” asked Springfield City Schools superintendent DavidEstrop, pointing to New York’s69 percent failure rate when it set a very high bar.

“Secondquestion: If we say that’s OK, what’s the plan to deal with those 70 percent?Do 70 percent or 60 percent of the kids of Ohio not graduate? What do we do with them?”

Previous system called ‘terrible’

Ohio tested its studentsvia the Ohio Achievement Assessments and the Ohio Graduation Test, which arebeing phased out after more than a decade. State officials decided what scoresqualified as advanced, accelerated, proficient, basic or limited on those tests— and many state leaders now admit those standards were poor.

HouseEducation Committee member Mike Henne called them “terrible.” Senate EducationCommittee Chair Peggy Lehner said they were clearly too low.

Tobe proficient (or passing), an Ohioseventh-grader only had to correctly answer 45 percent of the reading questionsand 32 percent of math questions. In virtually every school, a classroom gradeof 59 percent is an F, but all 14 OAA/OGT reading and math tests deemed 59percent a “proficient” score.

“Inour world, even on our report cards, if you walked into your house and said toyour mom, ‘I got 37 percent on my test and it was proficient,’ that’s acontradiction,” said Houser. “But in the state of Ohio, that’s all you would have to getcorrect to be proficient.”

Thereport by Achieve took individual states’ proficiency standards and comparedthem to the states’ performance on the national test from NAEP.

Thereport claimed Ohio’sproficiency scores in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math were among themost inflated in the nation. Ohiodeemed 87 percent of its eighth-graders proficient in reading, but only 39percent of Ohioans who took the corresponding NAEP test were proficient by thatnational standard.

Ohio’s old system alsomade it easy for schools to earn state praise. To meet the standard on anystate test, an elementary or middle school had to have 75 percent of itsstudents score proficient — a number that was bumped up to 80 percent lastyear.

Scoring process questioned

Ohio has been raisingstandards the past few years, including the new requirement that mostthird-graders reach a minimum reading standard to advance to fourth grade.

Thestate took a big step toward a higher bar by implementing new learningstandards and harder tests this year, including English and math tests fromPARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) andscience and social studies tests from AIR (American Institutes for Research).

Schoolofficials say the new tests also focus more on critical thinking and problemsolving. Students, for example, must explain how they arrived at an answer andsome questions have more than one correct answer. This replaces past tests thathave been filled with multiple choice answers, where some students might guesstheir way through the test.

“There’san increased emphasis on being able to demonstrate your understanding of howyou’re going about solving a problem or arriving at your solution,” said KeithMillard, the assistant superintendent for instruction at the Hamilton CitySchool District.

Headded that in answering reading questions, too, the tests place a biggeremphasis on citing evidence from text.

Thosetests have been finished for weeks, but the state hasn’t set passing scorestandards yet and PARCC hasn’t explained the scoring process yet. Scores won’tbe available until the fall.

“Youreally have no idea what target it is that you’re shooting for,” said KeithMillard, the assistant superintendent for instruction at the Hamilton City School District.

PARCCofficials said representatives of the 11 member states will review graded testsin July and August, and recommend cutoff scores for the five-level scoringsystem. PARCC’s governing board, which includes Ohio state superintendent Richard Ross, willvote on those recommendations in September.

Thebiggest change is in the five scoring levels. In Ohio’s current system, the top three levels(proficient, accelerated, advanced) are the equivalent of passing the test.According to PARCC, only two levels (strong and distinguished) are theequivalent of passing.

Which way will state go?

Despitethe controversy over the states proficiency scores, officials at Miami Universityin Oxford say they’re admitting more- andbetter-performing Ohiostudents than ever at the university.

Since2010, the university has seen a two-point increase in ACT scores for Ohio students, even asthe school admits a larger number of in-state high school graduates. The schooldoesn’t analyze state proficiency scores when selecting applicants. Instead,ACT or SAT scores are analyzed, along with grades and curriculum, among otherthings.

“We’reseeing students who are incredibly well-prepared, particularly in looking at Ohio,” said SusanSchaurer, the university’s interim director of admissions . She said thestrength of classes students are taking has increased, as well.

“They’redemonstrating that they’re prepared to take more challenging coursework.”

Sen.Lehner said kids will improve if the tests improve — even if the state must sufferthrough a few first years of bad test scores.

“Lookat Massachusetts,”said Lehner, R-Kettering. “They moved their bar up substantially. And within 10years, they were exceeding it and moving it up again. It doesn’t happenovernight, but it certainly is something that needs to happen if we’re going toimprove the overall quality of our kids.”

Lehneralso wants all states to have the same proficiency standards on tests. Lettingeach state set its own score means that students in different states could takethe same test, provide the same answers, and be declared passing in one stateand failing in the other.

Regardlessof what the legislature decides, the schools are the ones who will have to handout the tests.

“It’sreally a state issue, not a district issue,” said Lakota Local School spokesman RandyOppenheimer. “We’re going to administer the tests the states send us.”

The wild card

Despiteeducators’ complaints about constant change in schools, Ohio House members thismonth supported a bill that could completely ditch the PARCC and AIR tests andstart over next year.

TheSenate seems less likely to go that route, and Ohio Department of Educationspokesman J.C. Benton pushed back against that idea, saying if Ohio wants itsstudents to make progress, the state needs to “stay the course” with CommonCore and PARCC and AIR assessments.

Gunlocksaid that after PARCC approves cut scores, it’s possible the state legislaturewould vote to throw out the scores and create its own scale.

“Ihope and pray that they do what is best for kids and the state of Ohio and leave politicsout of it,” Gunlock said. “This is the last time, I think, that we have achance to raise the standards high enough so that the kids who are graduatingare truly college and career-ready.